Prevalence of overweight among Dutch primary school children living in JOGG and non-JOGG areas

Background One of the most influential integrated approaches towards reducing childhood obesity is EPODE, a program that has been translated to over 20 different countries worldwide. Aim The goal of this study was to explore how JOGG–the Dutch EPODE adaptation–might reduce overweight prevalence among children. Methods To compare whether overweight prevalence was different in JOGG areas vs. non-JOGG areas, in long-term JOGG areas vs. short-term JOGG areas, and in low SES JOGG areas vs. middle/high SES JOGG areas, secondary anthropometric and personal data of 209,565 Dutch children were mapped onto publicly available JOGG data. Results Findings showed that overweight prevalence decreased from 25.17% to 16.08% in JOGG-areas, and from 32.31% to 18.43% in long-term JOGG areas. However, when taking into account SES, the decrease in prevalence was mainly visible in low SES long-term JOGG areas. Conclusion JOGG appeared to be successful in targeting areas where overweight was most prevalent. Low SES areas that had implemented JOGG for a longer period of time, i.e., six years, appeared to be successful in decreasing overweight prevalence.

When Preschoolers Interact with an Educational Robot, Does Robot Feedback Influence Engagement?

In this paper, we examine to what degree children of 3–4 years old engage with a task and with a social robot during a second-language tutoring lesson. We specifically investigated whether children’s task engagement and robot engagement were influenced by three different feedback types by the robot: adult-like feedback, peer-like feedback and no feedback. Additionally, we investigated the relation between children’s eye gaze fixations and their task engagement and robot engagement. Fifty-eight Dutch children participated in an English counting task with a social robot and physical blocks. We found that, overall, children in the three conditions showed similar task engagement and robot engagement; however, within each condition, they showed large individual differences. Additionally, regression analyses revealed that there is a relation between children’s eye-gaze direction and engagement. Our findings showed that although eye gaze plays a significant role in measuring engagement and can be used to model children’s task engagement and robot engagement, it does not account for the full concept and engagement still comprises more than just eye gaze.

Child Care in Times of COVID-19: Predictors of Distress in Dutch Children and Parents When Re-entering Center-Based Child Care After a 2-Month Lockdown

As a consequence of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) child care facilities all over the world were temporarily closed to minimize the spread of the virus. In Netherlands, the first closure lasted for almost 2 months. The return to the child care center after this significant interruption was expected to be challenging, because earlier studies demonstrated that transitions into child care can be stressful for both children and their parents. The current paper retrospectively examined the distress of Dutch children (aged 0–4) and their parents during the first 2 weeks after the reopening of child care centers, and what factors accounted for individual differences in distress. In total, 694 parents filled out an online questionnaire about stress during closure and distress after the reopening of child care centers. Furthermore, questions regarding several demographic variables and child care characteristics were included, as well as questionnaires measuring child temperament, parental separation anxiety, and parental perception of the child care quality. Results showed that younger children and children with parents scoring higher on separation anxiety experienced more distress after the reopening, as reported by parents. Furthermore, children were more distressed upon return when they attended the child care center for less hours per week after the reopening, experienced less stress during closure, and grew up in a one-parent family. With regard to parental distress after the reopening, we found that parents scoring higher on separation anxiety and fear of COVID-19 experienced more distress. Moreover, parents experiencing less stress during closure and mothers were more distressed when the child returned to the child care center. Finally, concurrent child and parental distress after reopening were positively related. The results of the current study may help professional caregivers to identify which children and parents benefit from extra support when children return to the child care center after an interruption. Especially the role that parental separation anxiety played in predicting both child and parental distress deserves attention. More research is required in order to study the underlying mechanisms of these associations and to design appropriate interventions.

Determinants of early lexical acquisition: Effects of word- and child-level factors on Dutch children's acquisition of words

Previous research on the effects of word-level factors on lexical acquisition has shown that frequency and concreteness are most important. Here, we investigate CDI data from 1,030 Dutch children, collected with the short form of the Dutch CDI, to address (i) how word-level factors predict lexical acquisition, once child-level factors are controlled, (ii) whether effects of these word-level factors vary with word class and age, and (iii) whether any interactions with age are due to differences in receptive vocabulary. Mixed-effects regressions yielded effects of frequency and concreteness, but not of word class and phonological factors (e.g., word length, neighborhood density). The effect of frequency was stronger for nouns than predicates. The effects of frequency and concreteness decreased with age, and were not explained by differences in vocabulary knowledge. These findings extend earlier results to Dutch, and indicate that effects of age are not due to increases in vocabulary knowledge.

Psychosocial function of Dutch children with cancer and their caregivers during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic

We compared psychosocial functioning of children with cancer and their caregivers in several phases of the COVID-19 pandemic to before COVID-19. One or more questionnaires on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) or fatigue of children or distress of their caregivers was available from 1644 families. In children with cancer, HRQoL was stable throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Fatigue was slightly lower and sleep somewhat better during the pandemic than before. Caregiver distress was lower in the first pandemic phase, but increased to pre-COVID-19 levels in later phases, indicating that the length and consequences of the pandemic may be weighing on them.

Reactions of non-abused children aged 3–9 years to the Sexual Knowledge Picture Instrument: an interview-based study

BackgroundThe Sexual Knowledge Picture Instrument (SKPI) is a child-friendly picture book that was developed as a diagnostic tool for sexual abuse in young children and is currently being validated. The aim of the current study was to explore the verbal and non-verbal reactions of non-abused Dutch children, aged 3–9 years, to the SKPI and to assess differences in reactions between genders and age groups.Methods and analysisSubject recruitment took place at preschools and primary schools. All children underwent a recorded video semi-structured interview with the SKPI. Interview recordings were scored by an independent rater who used scoring lists for verbal and non-verbal reactions. Non-parametric tests were used in statistical analyses.ResultsOf the 90 children (median age 5 years) participating in the study, most correctly named the genitals and their non-sexual functions. Only 34 showed an understanding of the picture depicting adult sexuality, with just one child describing a sexual function. Girls (n=45) gave more correct answers (median 87%) than boys (n=45, median 78%; p=0.006). Giggling was the most frequently observed non-verbal reaction, with a total of 186 instances in 54 children.ConclusionNon-abused children up to 9 years of age showed only limited knowledge of the sexual function of the genitals and hardly any insight into adult sexuality.

The experience of life events and body composition in middle childhood: a population-based study

While studies suggest potential influences of childhood adversities on obesity development in adulthood, less is known about the short-term association in children. We examined the association between a wide range of life events experienced in the first ten years of life (including maltreatment and milder adversities) and body composition in 5333 ten-year old Dutch children. In structured interviews, mothers retrospectively reported on their children’s experience of 24 events. BMI was calculated, and fat mass index and fat free mass index were determined by dual-x-ray absorptiometry scanning. Linear regressions showed that, unadjusted, a higher number of life events was associated with higher BMI and body composition. However, associations attenuated to non-significance after adjustment for covariates. Similar findings were observed for maltreatment and milder life events. Thus, the number of experienced life events was not associated with body composition in middle childhood. Rather, other factors, like socioeconomic conditions, accounted for the relationship between life events and weight development in children.

The Variation in 3D Face Shapes of Dutch Children for Mask Design

The use of 3D anthropometric data of children’s heads and faces has great potential in the development of protective gear and medical products that need to provide a close fit in order to function well. Given the lack of detailed data of this kind, the aim of this study is to map the size and shape variation of Dutch children’s heads and faces and investigate possible implications for the design of a ventilation mask. In this study, a dataset of heads and faces of 303 Dutch children aged six months to seven years consisting of traditional measurements and 3D scans were analysed. A principal component analysis (PCA) of facial measurements was performed to map the variation of the children’s face shapes. The first principal component describes the overall size, whilst the second principal component captures the more width related variation of the face. After establishing a homology between the 3D scanned face shapes, a second principal component analysis was done on the point coordinates, revealing the most prominent variations in 3D shape within the sample.

Sex Differences and the Role of Gaming Experience in Spatial Cognition Performance in Primary School Children: An Exploratory Study

Sex differences are repeatedly observed in spatial cognition tasks. However, the role of environmental factors such as gaming experience remains unclear. In this exploratory study, navigation and object-relocation were combined in a naturalistic virtual reality-based spatial task. The sample consisted of n = 53 Dutch children aged 9–11 years. Overall, girls (n = 24) and boys (n = 29) performed equally accurately, although there was an increase in accuracy with age for boys (ηp2 = 0.09). Boys navigated faster than girls (ηp2 = 0.29), and this difference increased with age (ηp2 = 0.07). More gaming experience in boys versus girls (Cohen’s d = 0.88) did not explain any result observed. We encourage future confirmatory studies to use the paradigm presented here to investigate the current results in a larger sample. These findings could be beneficial for optimizing spatial cognition training interventions.